Homeland Security

Just got back in town from the left coast.

Stayed pretty zen through the 100-yard-long security line stretching outside Terminal 3 at LAX this morning. Got to the airport almost 2 hours before my domestic flight and barely made it onboard before take-off.

The Transportation Security Administration folks funneled anxious passengers from 6 different airlines through a narrow bottleneck lane with a chatty and charming agent controlling the flow.

She wanted to know how my day was going. I'm guessing she was a waitress in a local coffee shop at some previous point in her resume.

In spite of the nonchalant security lady and the geologic pace at LAX I'm a loyal soldier in the 'war on terror.' :^) So I want to give the TSA the benefit of the doubt.

Here's my theory.

They're attempting to frustrate potential terrorists into submission through the sheer power of organizational incompetence.

Sort of a brilliant, counter-intuitive, Inspector Clouseau approach to combatting terrorism if you think about it for a few minutes.

Their patriotic goal?

Making sure that the potential bombers--compulsively checking their watches and cursing under their breath in frustration along with everyone else in line--never make it to their designated flights.

It's a subtle but potentially effective strategy. Very subtle :^).